US Foreign Assistance (USAID) With Its Impact On US Military Presence In Africa

Answer :

I. Introduction 

One of the biggest regional recipient of the US foreign aids include Africa extracting almost 32% of the total amount spent by US on the 2015 fiscal year. More than $8billion assistance were provided to almost 47 countries by USAID and Department of states in the sub Saharan Africa in the fiscal year. The money was used for handling issues related to the country’s security, fighting diseases and providing sufficient nutrition to all. In an attempt to improve the cooperation and relation between the host country and Africa, the AFDB is constantly holding meetings for bringing about a change. Lack of employement opportunities result in dependence of the rural areas of Africa on agriculture, as a result of which it becomes a breeding ground for the emerging of the terrorists. Thus a continued support needs to be provided by US and other first world countries to enhance Africa’s position in the globe thereby enriching their culture and increasing the possibilities. More importantly a form of international backing needs to be provided to deal with the grave impact of climate changes due to global warming.

II.Background 

The report will focus on how the operations of US Agency for International Development (USAID) have suffered a negative impact on the US military presence in Africa. Although most of the developmental objectives focus on country Development cooperation strategies through an agreement reached along with the other potential development partners, the effect on Africa in general has suffered a negative impact especially on the economic and employment opportunities thereby depleting their environment and leaving them victims of global warming. The present uncertainty in the global economy has resulted in risk in the health sector in Africa thereby making it hard for them to show improvements in their health indicators.

III.National Military Objectives 

1. Deter, deny and defeat state adversaries: In today's world, the most uncertain and unpredictable matter has become the global security of the environment. Thus, the National Militants has adopted certain strategies to employ more forces to protect the nation’s interests at all costs. The increasing implications of US have resulted in a rapid technological change where the expected future conflicts have been expected to last even longer in the technically challenging battlefields (Dube & Naidu, 2015). Thus, in order to be able to adopt all the new threats the military instruments of power of the military needs to be improved thereby enabling a wide network of allies and partners (Woodward, 2016). With the help of pentagon’s new National military strategies, all the major possible wars with the US adversaries have already been detected and efforts are made to counter them. The USAID has therefore collaborated with other countries and formed an alliance to deter, deny and defeat the potential state adversaries whenever necessary
2. Disrupt, degrade and defeat violent extremist organizations:  With the first update of the strategy in 2011, the international security of the environment became more challenging for US to overcome the effects of globalization and diffusion of military technologies with the rise of global powers. Thus, efforts are being made to disrupt, degrade and defeat the VEOs thereby leading in the multiple coalition process. The main aim of all these efforts made, is to strengthen the relationship with the global allies and partners. Thus certain effective strategies are made to conduct an integrated operation around the globe thereby implementing informational reforms and sustaining their capabilities. In order to overcome all the future conflicts, readiness is required to cope up with those conflicts which may be different in scale, scope and durations. All these efforts have been supported by the US military forces thereby establishing a hold over the globally integrated command and controlling the processes by enabling Trans-regional operations. 
3. Strengthen our global network of allies and partners: One of the biggest strengths of US is the global network of allies and partnerships they have made with other countries thereby establishing a foundation for their international security and stability. The partnership aim at focusing on a mutual interest to protect and safeguard the countries from external power. By preserving the alliance and partnership system, the country aims at maintaining and stabilizing a global presence by following certain techniques which involve training, exercises, security cooperation activities and military to military engagement thereby using the correlation in an effective manner.  On the basis of all these activities, the capabilities and capacity of both the partners get enhanced with an increase in the collective ability to alter the aggression and win over all the extremists in the right manner.  All the services and businesses are strengthened by alliances with leading technology partners. 

IV.Foreign Assistance 

1. Promotes social and economic progress: The effectiveness with which providing a foreign aid can help developing countries such as Africa in this case, is bigger than usual. It helps in increasing the accumulation of physical wealth in the country thereby helping in both social as well as economic growth of the country. Some authors stress on the fact that providing foreign assistance can help the developing countries to increase in more employment opportunities for people thereby increase in GDp of the country with an increase in the savings gap. This results in increase in the foreign exchange system with more importations possible of the capital goods into the country. With more employment opportunities and more money coming, the technology improves as a result of which the concept of industrialization improves to a new level. Africa gravely lacks in technological developments and the efficient managerial skills required for increase in production and development of the country. However with more assistance from US on a monetary basis along with an increase in the military, the country is expected to compete with the standards of advancement on a global basis. 
2.  Foster political stability: Fostering of foreign assistance has a massive impact on the developing countries’ political economy. Our report focuses on a better understanding of how the foreign aid provided by US has made an impact on the democratic progress in Africa. In order to further the political stability in Africa focus is first given on three basic elements of the country which falls under the political system. They include:  

1)African states are all composed of a number of genuinely competitive party systems.

2) Presence of a genuine respect for the legitimate political institutions.

3) The citizens are all liable to the political system.

 The main aim of providing foreign assistance is to portray the main concepts of the policymakers thereby developing the practitioners and researchers featuring the aid. It is further characterized by the recipient countries in order to determine the magnitude and direction of the effectiveness of the aid provided related to the transitions and consolidations made democratically.

c. It is a strategic, economic and moral imperative for the US and vital to US national security: In the present times, US have succeeded in achieving a position of unparalleled strength in military with a successful socio-economic and political system in the country. In order to maintain a balance in their powers, emphasis is laid on the freedom of all human and providing them a condition where all the nations and societies have the power to choose their respective rewards and challenges to attain both political and economic liberty. In an attempt to make a world a better and safe place to live in, the US Government makes a number of strategies for safeguarding the national security (Reveron, 2016). They aim at defending the world from terrorists and tyrants thereby preserving the peace by maintaining a good relationship with all the superpowers of the world. Several strategies have been devised by the Presidential policy of Directives to stipulate the developments in the right manner resulting in both economic and moral developments in the country (Campbell & Murrey, 2014). US has proven to have global leadership qualities in providing assistance and contributing in the human development process All the funds provided by the US government aim at fighting against all sorts of health threats on a global basis. The International immunization programs held every year is found to have saved more than 3 million lives (Hampson, 2015). The rates of infant mortality have decreased by 10 percent in the existing year where the child survival programs have shown a major contribution.

V. Department of Defense Role in Foreign Assistance 

1. Responding to humanitarianism and basic needs: Natural disasters and conflicts are the main reasons for the emergence of the humanitarian emergencies in a worldwide basis.  In an attempt to save the lives of people and promote stability in the nation, the congress has frequently adopted these humanitarian efforts thereby emphasizing on the US foreign policy objectives. The process of intervention acts as a great relief in providing recovery assistance thereby impacting on the relief operations to focus on the broader foreign policy issues. It is expected that the international humanitarianism and assistance to the refugees would take a strong measure of bipartisan focusing on the key policies of prioritization of budget, different levels and forms of funding, providing other sources of support from other countries and the ways with which operational assistance can be delivered at the soonest (Domínguez & de Castro, 2016). The basic factors thus required in order to initiate in contributing to the relief methods are impacting on the possibilities of decision making processes using the various types of humanitarian aids, the impact on stability of the affected regions in matters of conflict and refugee flows and the contribution and role and contribution of the neighboring countries in fostering to the relief efforts.
2. Building Foreign military capacity and capabilities:  US aims at strengthening their military capabilities and capacities of the foreign partners by increasing the responsibilities of providing regional security based on the congressional Research service (Liu & Tang, 2017). In order to increase the prominence with the US, several strategies are made by the central pillars of US of national security and foreign policy by using an efficient approach known as Building Partner Capacity (BPC). It focuses on strengthening the fragile foreign security system abroad thereby providing several benefits for the US national security bureau.  However despite the growing centrality of BPC, the effectiveness of the capacity of foreign security forces still remains unclear according to the CRS report.
3. Strengthening Foreign Governments: In order to assist the foreign populations, militaries and governments, the DOD of US has played an crucial role. Following the perception of DOD in contributing to the vital capabilities and resources,  they have succeeded in providing foreign assistance thereby providing the manpower, materials and organizational assets required to cope up with the international needs. The DOD’s role has been further strengthened by congress by helping it to stay in shape with the help of a variety of authorities. They mainly aim providing 3 main purposes which include acknowledging the humanitarian and basic needs, constructing the foreign military capacities and capabilities and enhancing the ability of the foreign governments in order to deal with internal and international threats by using certain state building measures.   
4. Historical Precedents and Current activities: The DoDEA has been found to have a well-established history in serving the families of the military from all around the globe. By the end of World War II, the beginning of DoDEA has started working with establishment of the Department of Defense Dependents Schools (DODDS) thereby operating various dependent schools in all the foreign occupied countries thereby organizing small schools all over the globe (Abramovitz, Rodriguez & Arendt, 2014). The first dependent schools have been established by the Department of the Army thereby installing on and off military operations in 1946 in all the main occupied countries of Germany, Austria and Japan. After a span of 3 years, more than 100 schools emerged operating separately working under the vigilance of the Army, Navy and Air force globally.  The DoD has made certain future plans to construct cyber warfare basing on the previous attempts (Lum & Margesson, 2014).War fighting Domains have emerged as a result under the united states military. Currently, the organizational design of the Department of Defense has come up following the trend of the past historical precedents. A clean sheet organizational design has been made which would include the sub- cabinet military departments, duplication of the efforts made in the past, organization of the matrix systems and such. Following the pathway of the history, the United States has resulted in many effective developments of today.

VI.US Africa Command AFRICOM Roles and Responsibilities 

1. Protect US interests in the region by working with African states: In order to prevent and resolve the conflicts, several regional organizations such as ECOWAS and African unity has been established. The southern African Development Community the East African Community have come up in order to establish the regional markets to come up with newer economic engines for a better future (Aldrich, 2014). The challenges and opportunities that are faced by the people of Africa have seen a stark development with the US being a constant support on their side. The growing interest in Africa has been recognized by many countries thereby working to develop the nation. An attempt has been made to counter all the terrorist attacks to protect the nation from suffering any further (Hartmann, 2014). However, certain cynics argue on the fact that US has involved too much resulting in Horn of Africa, Congo and Angola from taking place and they should rightfully take their position back or give up on it.

b.    Conduct military operations as directed by national command authorities: Although the main objective of DOD is to conduct operations based on the accomplished tasks, but the main task lies in employing DOD in more than one service and operation in order to combat through various missions altogether and focus on other variants as well through joint operations (Arieff & Ploch, 2014). Using the CSA and a proper synchronizing service, the challenges can be met even faster than before thereby facilitating all plans in the right manner. 

c.Promote US strategic objectives:  

1. US Military as advisors 
2. Training programs

There are many training programs which are being held by the US Military to keep the army active and so that they stay fit during the any sort of emergency situation (Angelo & Davies, 2015). The military has to be active during these training programs as these also helps the soldiers to practice their shooting ability and combat skills. These training programs are very valuable for the soldiers because only through this they can sharpen their skills and can make them efficient to face any civil war or local goons (Arsenault, 2015). These trainings also contain multiple problems solving situations as well as planning and sorting out for any kind of operation. This is the reason why training programs are considered to be valuable.

Joint exercises

Joint exercise activities with local militants are being held (Crane & Maguire, 2017). In these programs both the teams are provided with information and operations they have to perform joint exercise with each other and solve the situation. 

Counterterrorism Efforts

Different counter terrorism efforts are being made which helps to counter the local goons and terrorists which are trying to control territories in Africa.

VIII.    Challenges of the US Military presence in Africa 

Budget pressures that could endanger progress in strengthening partner defense capabilities and access to strategic locations

The military presence of the US in Africa puts its main focus on all the strategic locations in order to strengthen their defense capabilities. Any form of pressure that may turn up due to the Budget system of the nation creates a barrier on the way of development in Africa. Being a developed country as it is, the GDP of Africa is considerably low if compared with a developed country such as US (Abramovitz, Rodriguez & Arendt, 2014). Thus it becomes very difficult for the allied countries to get a safe access to their desired locations in Africa considering the fact that the US military has put a lot of barriers thereby alerting their presence at all times. Although the main aim of the military is to protect the nation but on the other hand, getting an easy access for the other countries get difficult in both socio-economic and political grounds (Arieff, 2014). The trade system is also made very restricted which makes it hard to import or export goods and service on a free basis.

Country attitudes shifting overtime

People of Africa do not like the US soldier’s presence in their land so they have different attitude towards them which has affected the relation between the soldiers and the local people (Arieff, 2013). People in the past had a different attitude towards the soldiers but now with the passage of time it has been changing and the behavior is not improving.

The perception of militarized aid

Aids have become a major issue and a threat to the American Soldiers. There is a high increase in rate of aids in Africa. There have been certain methods which has been used to minimize the problem of aids but still has not been solved (Bachmann, 2014). Although the military provides a lot of aid to the country in all ways possible but their strong guard has made a barrier and obstruction to keep a contact with other nations freely.

Nations feel threatened by the US presence

Local people of Africa feel threatened in the presence of the US soldiers they think that these people might invade their territory. This is a major challenge that the soldiers face during their presence in parts of Africa.

Invading another nation’s sovereignty 

The US military has a strong hold over the country as a result of which the freedom and rights of the people living in Africa are gravely breached (Aldrich, 2014). This has made the country completely dependent on US who makes it a profitable ground for US but a problematic situation for Africa not being able to connect with other countries and becoming self-dependent of their own. This has acted as a breach of the nation's sovereignty in return thereby making the country a mere puppet on the hands of the US military.

Conclusion 

Thus we see how USAID has been suffering on a constant verge by the impending power of the US military over a long time. Although efforts are made by the allied countries to make an effort to help the nation in all ways possible, but the power of the military has made all possible connections with the outside world difficult and intolerable. Africa is entirely dependent on US and has become a slave to their powers and due to their lack of employment opportunities and money in their economy, a complete dependence on the nation has resulted with no power of their own to manage or decide anything. Being a superpower as it is, they have completed depleted and made all necessary changes in order to make the nation bow down before them by removing all the extremists and revolutionists from the country taking full control over them. The country suffers disproportionately from the harmful effects of global warming and much severe diseases such as Ebola which are the root causes of their degradation on the hands of the US powers and being unable to find solutions to all these problems, the suffering becomes intolerable and inevitable.